Dragonball FXZ: Love Lost
by ferdax
Summary: Side story with the three months skipped in the main story. Cole lives in the mountains where he stumbles upon someone he never thought he would meet.


**This story, along with New Life and Life in the 439, are stories that coincide with a three month period of Dragonball FXZ. **

**Hey everyone I thought that I was going to wait for a while to do this but a guest left a review saying that I should do some now so I think I'm going to do a little at a time to go alongside the story.**

Chapter 1

"You're early, no offence but I was expecting to have to wait a while," Piccolo said as he saw Cole land in open field where they usually trained. They both sported the same gis and pants but Piccolo was still wearing his training gear. The morning was cool, the sun was just starting to rise, giving enough light for one to see without difficulty. "I hope you realize that I wasn't kidding when I told you I was going to send you through hell today," Piccolo said, "I brought these so we can keep going once you get too roughed up." Piccolo held a small brown sack in his hand which he then tucked under his belt. "They're Senzu beans and they're grown by Korin," Piccolo explained, "One bean and all of your injuries will be healed and your exhaustion gone.

"So just out of curiosity how come the rest of the world doesn't use these?" Cole asked.

"The rest of the world doesn't know. It takes a very long time just to grow one bean, with the times of peace since Cell, Korin has been able to stockpile a little."

Cole nodded his head in understanding before Piccolo drew the ancient's blade from its sheath at his waist. Cole knew what was happening and he follow suit with his own blade. Cole knew that he wasn't the strongest fighter out there, nor that he wasn't going to have a chance at catching up to whoever is the strongest. But, that doesn't mean he wasn't going to work like hell for himself to be stronger. As soon as Cole withdrew his blade Piccolo lunged at Cole so fast that he almost didn't see it coming. Cole deflected the slash with his own blade before sending a slash back where he knew Piccolo would turn up. He felt his blade hit hard steel before the defender's blade withdrew and disappeared with its owner. Cole reached out his senses and felt Piccolo's Ki attack. As soon as the blast was launched at him from seemingly nowhere Cole reached out to the Ki in order to control and managed to catch it in his left hand. As soon as he had his lock back on Piccolo he launched it right back at him. However the blast was deflected and collided with what was a nearby mountain, now reduced to rubble. Cole then decided to take the offensive himself as he disappeared in thin air in an effort to fight his master at a pace which was faster than he could see. He knew where he was punching and kicking, however he could not see his limbs moving. He could feel himself blocking his opponent blows, but he was practically blind. By this time, the sun had already fully risen and was taking its place in the morning sky, however as life normally would be just stirring now, all of the creatures have left after hearing the battle taking place. No one wanted to be caught in the crossfire. They went on until Cole threw an energy slice with his blade that caught Piccolo in his arm. They stopped and Cole watched in horror as his master's arm went falling to the ground. It's been a couple hours since they started and Cole breathing heavy and sweating while Piccolo just stood there with his missing arm. He didn't even look angry at Cole, he seemed angry at himself. Piccolo then let out a powerful yell and suddenly his arm grew back! The break was over after that as Piccolo tried a new strategy to test Cole with. Cole still, with an open mouth stood floating in midair, not believing what he just saw. The next thing he knew Piccolo's special beam cannon was heading right for him, but he had no idea where from. Cole had more than enough time to dodge the beam before returning fire with his own blast. But that was short lived as another one of Piccolo's attacks came from what seemed like the opposite direction. Cole frowned, he knew what his master was doing now. He was going to hide, attack, and keep going in that cycle unless Cole could put a stop to it. He knew that there was only one way to be able to remove all viable hiding spots in the area, and he wasn't happy to do it. Cole formed an energy blast, but as opposed to sending it back to where he thought Piccolo was, he sent it straight to the ground. Piccolo then appeared to deflect the blast, Cole smiled. 'I have you now,' he thought as he added more energy to his attack. However it was to no avail as whenever Piccolo received the attack, he practically ripped it from Cole's control and let it dissipate in the air. The sun was halfway through the sky now, indicating noon, and Cole was just starting to notice the hunger pains in his stomach. "You have an hour!" Piccolo yelled, "Don't waste it!"

Cole simply sent Piccolo a mini salute before blasting off for his cabin. As soon as he landed though, he was met with an unexpected surprise. Outside his cabin was a woman in her mid-20's, she had brown hair that came down slightly past her shoulders, a tan complexion, and was dressed in what looked like survival gear. She looked like she was trying to open the locked door to Cole's Cabin. She had no idea that he landed. Cole cleared his throat and she jumped a good two feet in the air. "Oh my god, you scared the living lights out of me!" She said happily as she turned around. 'Great,' Cole thought, 'It took me ten minutes to fly here, and she's eating up time.'

"Is this your cabin?" She asked while pointing to it.

"This is my home," Cole said as he pulled a key out of his pocket and opened the door. He had to admit though, this woman didn't look half bad. As he unlocked and opened the door he gestured for her to follow him inside, which she did regardless. "Wow, this is a pretty nice place," she said as she set her stuff down in a nearby corner. "If you don't mind," Cole said as he walked over to where he kept some food, "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Escaping," she replied, taking a seat in one of his chairs.

"From what?" he said as he munched on a piece of jerky.

"Everything, people the city, everything. I can't take it, I wanted to live in the wilderness."

"That's an awfully big claim. It's a pretty hard to go from being dependent on others to being completely independent."

She was having a hard time focusing, as she kept eyeing up Cole's jerky. He picked up the hint as he reached into the his small cloth bag and pulled out another piece and gave it to her. She ate it greedily while trying to say thank you.

"When was the last time you ate?" Cole asked.

"Three days ago," She said after eating the piece of jerky.

Cole's eyes widened, and she didn't give up? Didn't go back? Cole handed her another a few pieces of jerky before saying, "My name is Cole, what is yours?"

"Sophia," she said accepting more food.

"Well Sophia, it is pretty dangerous to be roaming the woods alone, especially if you don't know how to survive. Why don't you stay here with me?" Cole proposed.

Her eyes lit up a little, she liked Cole already, he seemed genuinely nice, had shelter and food, and wasn't too bad on the eyes either. She has never seen blood red hair as dark as his before and was entranced by his eyes, they looked like they weighed heavily with the story of a true man. The two of them kept eating and talking until Cole figured he had to make his return to Piccolo. "You don't have to stay in this house, but I would recommend to not stray too far from here or you may not find your way back," Cole said as he started to leave. But before he got to the door he felt two arms wrap around his waist. "Thank you so much," Sophia said as she hugged him from behind. Cole looked behind and saw a few tears start to flow down her face. It made him feel good inside that he was doing this for her. "It's no problem, I'll be back by tonight," Cole said. Sophia released him and whenever Cole stepped outside he flew away, leaving a dumbfounded Sophia behind. 'Maybe I should've thought that through? Better she find out early about Ki use, I don't want to live a lie,' Cole thought as he flew. As soon as he landed though Piccolo threw something at him that felt like it was a ton. That's because it was he examined what it was his master threw and it was the exact same set of shoulder pads and turban that he was wearing. "Put those one, the added weight is one ton, nowhere near where mine is," Piccolo said solemnly. As Cole put the weights on he could feel weighed down instantly. He could still move, just not anywhere near as fast as he would've like to. The rest of the day's training was simple sparring and moving around in the weights. "The rest of this week is going to be done with those pads on, don't bother coming here without them already on. And don't take them off until you get back to your home," Piccolo instructed.

"I hate these already," Cole said as he tried to fly, his energy was almost completely depleted as he tried to float off the ground.

"I think you've earned one of these," Piccolo said as he reached into the small brown bag and pulled a bean out and threw it to Cole. Cole ate it and never felt more alive before in his life. All of his energy was back and his exhaustion was gone. "Now get back to where you live, I want to see you back here tomorrow," Piccolo said. Cole didn't need to be told twice, as soon as Piccolo was finished Cole blasted back towards his cabin. For some reason he really wanted to be with Sophia. As soon as he landed he could smell food cooking from inside the cabin, he took off the turban and shoulder pads and entered the door. Inside it looked like a small feast was on the table. And Sophia stood at the range, cooking the last bird with a determined look on her face. She looked up to see Cole walk in and smiled at him, Cole politely smiled back as gently set the weighted pads down next to the door so they were out of the way. She brought the last of what she cooked and set it on the table. "This is amazing, I've haven't seen this much food here in a long time, and it all looks delicious," Cole said taking a seat.

"Thank you," Sophia said gently with a smile, "I wanted to show you my thanks for letting me stay here with you. As you can see I was busy."

Cole laughed a little before they started to eat. "So I suppose you want an explanation on how I was flying before," he said after finishing his mouthful of food.

"Well that would be nice," Sophia said with a bit of a laugh.

"Well I guess the way to explain it is everyone has this energy called Ki, but not everyone knows how to use it. Those who do though can use it to fly, for attacks, and some can even use it to heal others. But not everyone is able to tap into their Ki, it takes a lot of work and dedication."

"Makes sense enough I guess," Sophia replied with a smile.

Cole laughed a little before deciding to ask, "Do you have anywhere else to go?"

"Well no not really, I was kind of hoping I could stay here with you," Sophia asked with her towards the table.

"I wouldn't be able to think of anywhere else better," as soon as Cole said that Sophia's eyes lit up and she smiled. Cole felt some sort of warmth go through his body, he's never felt like this before. He's never felt so happy, and he'd be damned if he would let Sophia out on her own again without him protecting her.

**So first chapter in this mini-series, I'm going to try and do these every week or two, with the main story being the priority. Please review. **


End file.
